Tabanlıoğlu Architects, known for producing internationally relevant, contemporary architecture across the world has embarked on the restoration works of one of Istanbul’s most prominent libraries; Beyazıt Public Library with its rare books and manuscript collection.

First founded in 1884, the State Library building was originally the soup kitchen and Caravanserai of a complex that included a kitchen, a primary school, a hospital, a madrasah and a hammam. The library is a section of the Kulliyah of the Beyazıt Mosque- the oldest surviving imperial mosque in the city- built by Sultan Beyazıt II and completed in 1506. The complex (Kulliyah) spatially surrounds and defines the historic Beyazıt Square.

Adjacent to Beyazıt Mosque, the Library is located in the Beyazıt Square that is connected to the spine of the historical peninsula, Divanyolu, and is one of the most vibrant spaces in the old part of the city.

The quarter, where the State Library sits, is infused with historical connections of a literary nature; the old-book bazaar (bouquiniste) that is set in a courtyard leads to Beyazıt Gate, one of the main entrances of the Grand Bazaar. The front façade of the library backs the monumental plane tree under which is the traditional open air coffee shop serving since the Ottoman times.

The exemplary updating and fine-tuning of the State Library involved the sensitive re-organisation of the interior and careful restoration of the building fabric with its prominent multi-domed roof. In place of the former concrete roof, Tabanlioglu Architects installed a light and transparent inflatable membrane structure which covers the courtyard, filtering the daylight and providing a controlled atmosphere. In the renovated shell of the building, the black glass boxes devoted to the manuscripts, stand as a monolithic object of awe that are of a stark contrast to their surroundings.

Lighting Design by studio Dinnebier, echoes the spatial and historical qualities of the complex, introducing geometries in harmony with its surroundings, while the soft lighting at the edges of the raised floor, that follows the wall contours introduce another layer of depth to the spaces.

The ‘minimal intervention’ approach ensures the spirit of the place survives while modern facilities are grafted onto the historic fabric. The project aims further for environmental betterment, and urban regeneration of the public realm by reviving all the traces and capacities, principally the Beyazıt Public Square.

Murat Tabanlıoğlu (RIBA, Chartered Member, Int’l. Assoc. AIA) graduated from Vienna Technical University 1992 with a degree in Architecture. He founded Tabanlıoğlu Architects in partnership with Dr. Hayati Tabanlıoğlu in Istanbul in 1990.

The principal goal of the new Taubman Building is to create a new center for the school, a space called the commons, which will enable new forms of collaboration between faculty, staff and students and between the Architecture and Planning programs.

Among the most important and interesting challenges was a twofold demand: on the one hand, to create a 36,000 ft2 building that would stretch from the existing architecture /planning wing of the college all the way to Bonisteel Blvd and on the other hand, to make this building that is on the eastern end of the existing building act as if it is in the center of the school, in order that it will serve as the nexus of circulation for all students and faculty. In short, the goal was to establish a center within a linear edge building.

In order to make the square footage of the three story building stretch as far as it needed to, half of the ground floor was evacuated, which created an outdoor experimental gallery for student projects. Lifting the commons off the ground this way solved several other problems; it permitted the courtyard between the existing and new buildings to remain open to the valley and retention pond to the east, allowed the new building to create a path through – between the existing and the new -, and it established an ascending and continuous sequence of interior spaces.

In contrast to the low slung two story existing Art program’s wing on Bonisteel, the new building articulates a striking silhouette, by virtue of its taller three story height, its sawtooth roof, and its skewed angle on the site which permits its corner to stick out past the art wing. The plan of the building on the site has the added advantage of creating a forced perspective-like spatial effect, which funnels people in and points them toward the courtyard entrance to the existing building.

It is less an object building than a means to make space and a sequence through the campus. The courtyard is not enclosed, but is certainly more definitively captured and active than ever before.

Interior

The commons is composed of two pairs of ramps linked by a spiral-like suspended stair. The solid parts of the railings are kept low to enable viewing of the central space from afar and to articulate a remarkable scale effect.

This project is part of a larger operation, including medical facilities for children and seniors.

The approach was above all an experimentation with the void, all the voids, their definition and hierarchy: the void of the square, the long void of the promenade and the ones of the planted courtyards and patios. These voids create spaces for breathing, distribution and porosity between the various parts of the project and the railways.

The thickness created by this over 200m-long landscape-building, forms the bower, the calming horizon that orders and unites the activity and the public spaces of this emerging neighborhood.

The school complex is a protective U shape around its courtyard, its volumes defining the spaces between the younger and the older students. The building offers many views onto the courtyard, the vegetation and the sky. The gymnasium, located at the end of the building and open onto the square, offers strollers an observation point onto sporting activities.

The brief includes a new vehicular access from the Town Center as well as a new external playground area and a 22 x 44m sport court.
The aim has been to create a high quality landscape by enabling better connections between the town, the existing school building and the new gym pavilion, making the area more pleasant and accessible for the students.

The design creates a geometrical layout of in situ concrete retaining walls and platforms at different levels, from the access at the lower level, to the upper platform where the gym pavilion and its connection with the existing school entrance is located.

According to the different scale of uses within the building, the design responds with an specific construction system.

On the one hand, the small ancillary areas comprising changing rooms, storage and the instructor office, are included inside dark brick one storey volumes, enclosed by a concrete frame. Located in front of the existing building, the entrance to the facilities is defined in between two of these volumes. By using skylights in this area, the natural lighting and privacy is ensured.

On the other hand, the interior court area is conceived as a prismatic white precast concrete abstract volume. It is located beside the exterior sports court, with a direct connection between both. In this case, the internal courtyard provides indirect natural light avoiding glare.

To accommodate the merger of two primary schools the city of Knokke-Heist has developed an ambitious project: a so-called Passiefschool. The building has to comply with the highest environmental standards which should lead to a maximal consumption of 15 kWh per square meter for heating and cooling. A number of measures have been taken, some technical and some architectonic, to reach this goal. So besides triple glass, heavy duty insulation and the ‘Canadian Well’ for instance, the building features a ‘Volcano’ for night ventilation and a multifunctional porch to block the direct rays of the sun.

The new school consists of five functional clusters: a primary school and a nursery complemented by a refectory combined with after school daycare, a domain for the teachers and the administration and a multifunctional sports hall. By positioning this gymnastics hall in the center of the building it will play an active role in the daily life of the entire school. The hall as such can perform as square: a meeting place, a theatre, a room for ceremonies and festivals. The hall is a hub: it will form the connection between the different functions of the school.

Education is going through a process of individualization. The traditional ‘frontal’ use of a classroom with a teacher transmitting his knowledge in front of a group of listeners becomes less dominant. Education becomes interactive. Kids, more and more, work by themselves or in small groups. Fewer fixed working spaces are needed; more flexible arrangements become desirable. In that sense the number of ‘scale levels’ of a school building should be increased.

The Net is the effective space that the client desires, the Gross what actually has to be paid for. In today’s architecture the Gross / Net ratio is a decisive factor. Can we reclaim the Tare for Architecture? The aspiration is to make a building without corridors. Corridors are mono-functional conduits. Can we turn the traffic space into a more versatile biotope?

The sports hall is enveloped by a kind of arcade that distributes the kids and visitors over the building. A thick wall absorbs the dressing rooms and storage space. But it also contains cavities for playing or studying that will hopefully further activate the hallway and increase the spectrum of study rooms. The wall opens up to reveal the activity inside and to create visual relationships between the different parts of the building.

The primary school consists of a series of classrooms that are placed around a rectangular enclosed ‘courtyard’. Wooden shelves (for hanging coats and displaying or storing school stuff) form an interface between the classrooms and this interior ‘square’. The classrooms become part of the larger whole; the children can also work outside the boundaries of their classrooms. A multiform block containing storage, installations and toilets is placed on the interior plaza creating niches: the corridor potentially becomes workspace. On top of this block and informal space emerges, an ‘attic’ or a ‘tent’. The stair doubles as a stand. The volcano shape helps to extract warmed up air to cool the building. Concrete ceilings throughout the school accumulate the chill over night and guarantee a refreshing start the day.

The rooms for the nursery are grouped around a super wide corridor. This hall connects directly to the bubble shaped playground outside. The space is 5,4 meters wide and serves an extension of the classrooms; a collective space for learning or playing.

The spacious nature of the site creates a wonderful opportunity: the school can be organized in one single layer. In itself this can provide a blissful sense of extensiveness and openness, but moreover the horizontal character allows for every classroom to have direct access to the surrounding gardens.

By sinking the building slightly into the ground the silhouette becomes extra friendly; the building will appear modest; the roof is almost within reach. Since the height difference between inside and outside equals the height of the school desks the windowsill potentially becomes workplace; it becomes a long additional table that can be used for studying, playing, as storage or as display. Three steps lead to double doors that open towards the garden.

Porch

The roof protrudes where necessary to prevent direct sunlight to enter. A porch comes into being, to hang out or for open-air working or studying; outdoor but covered.

Amoeba

The clusters for the primary school and the nursery school, the administration and other multifunctional spaces are all connected to the gym hall. As such a multiform building comes into being that embraces the outdoor space (and vice versa). These gardens have distinct functions and characters: kitchen garden, farm, park, playground, pitch, public square.

The volcano is topped with a layer of vegetation to enhance biodiversity and to create a natural appearance. large part of the roof is covered in pebbles. This surface is being used for rainwater collection. Perhaps counter-intuitively this grey roof turned out more sustainable than a green roof.

Through a collaborative process that involved extensive school and community engagement, the masterplan proposes a school that puts community and cultural facilities at its heart.

Typically with 90 pupils per classrooms in open plan learning spaces, an advanced innovative learning environment includes a variety of well-connected spaces through the use of new building materials and technologies. It allows for a variety of teaching pedagogical prac-tice, and specialist teaching spaces with technology and equipment suitable for a multitude of subjects and disciplines and provides spaces which can be utilised by both the school and the community alike.

The new buildings are planned and orientated along critical ley lines which are significant to the local community. The central plan which consists of a multipurpose Wharenui (the heart) faces directly north to where the Tarawera River meets the coast. Communal facilities include the Wharenui, Performing Arts Centre, and Hospitality Suite along with the School Reception and are placed around an open courtyard which is accessed directly via the school’s main entrance. Aligned on this entrance is the ley line from the local culturally significant mountain – Putauaki which forms a back drop to the school upon arrival. This axis also aligns to the north-west towards Maketu – an important historic landmark – which forms a street between the senior and middle school Learning Houses.

The traditional style of teaching has been replaced with new modern facilities, which transposes complexity for simplicity in both func-tion and architecture, allowing a new generation to be propelled into the future.

Once across the threshold of this school complex near Paris delivered by the architect Vincent Parreira, the child enters a non-standard world, one that evokes the troglodyte houses, vernacular architecture… or a pupil’s escape.

In the 21st century metropolises, as urbanization has continued to expand, there are still some areas that have remained virgin territory. The site chosen for building the school was such a case. At the time of the competition, it was an empty lot bordered by vast farming concerns, the famous caricature that seemed a thing of the past, the “beet fields” that saw new towns and housing projects popping up during the post war boom decades. In a context with vague outlines, the building takes up its position, organized to form a little miniature town, a school hamlet. It extends along a narrow little pedestrian street, forming a continuous built front, but fragmented into several volumes and providing access to the various parts of the program: primary school, leisure center, and caretaker’s lodge.

The primary school section of the building is endowed with transparencies, organizing views toward the courtyard and the city. A parking area is also included in the program, skillfully integrated into the whole. A hub and landscaped area ensure the soft transition between the playground and the parking area.

Unlike this open part, the nursery school is organized around a patio presenting a stable world, deliberately closed in on itself, forgetting the city surrounding it. The activity center and the canteen form a large transversal pivot between these two school ages.

Leveraging the contrast between the large smooth white concrete surfaces and the textured grayed wood arranged in a diamond-shape motif in relief, the architectural, style of Louis de Vion has proved disconcerting to some, as have the rare openings to the exterior, often limited to moucharabiehs pierced through the concrete walls where this same diamond motif has been employed. The entry halls of the two schools, identified by their vaulted ceilings, do not resemble the usual solemn entry halls found in temples of education. In fact, they look more like troglodyte houses and vernacular architecture − in word, like somewhere else − evoking the possibility of a Greek island or of a school vacation trip.

Raw is the preferred state of walls in the building, in the classrooms, the rough walls, create a feeling of closeness with the material that is tempered by the patio, a microcosm inside the larger world of the schoolhouse, or the one of the city, which can be perceived through the diamond shaped openings. Filtered by the moucharabiehs, framed by the wood awnings, colored through the large skylights in the dining areas, piercing through the fracture supporting the footbridge linking the primary school with the activity center, the play of light reaches into the furthest corners of the institution. The technical “emergences” are hidden in the volumes clad in wood; the same pre-patinated wood cladding employed on all wood elements.

Wherever possible, part of the volume of the emergences has been reallocated to the students, as with the dormitories for example, or the doubling of the ceiling height, challenging them with new spatial experiences.

Locating in Urfa province and having an indoor area of 16.000 sqm, the project has been designed to facilitate education up to university, from kindergarten to high school.

Block decisions have been made to provide separate interior circulation areas, entrances and courtyards for different education levels (high school, middle school, primary school, kindergarten). Integration of the blocks and balance have been considered while interpreting the multi-input requirement program. Blocks with different functions have been constructed by two blocks in \”L\” shape.

Regional climate data, terrace usage, and final impact factors have been considered while designing the façade of the construction.

The project locates in a region where the continental climate is dominant and has high temperatures. For this reason, the façade has been designed as a second shell to contribute to air conditioning. The placed shell functions as an insulation layer. First, the facades that are exposed to direct sunlight, eg. south, east-south-south, and west, have been covered. The plain approach preferred at the remaining façade surfaces emphasized the shell by creating the impression of window-wall.

The shell of the building continues in the areas with terraces and functions as a shading element. This continuity creates an identity to the shell and encourages the transformation of terraces into living spaces.

Much more natural impression has been ensured by preferring earth tones on the façade which has a strong impact with its form. By preferring white for the remaining surfaces, the effect of shell has been emphasized without exaggeration.

Interior decoration approach has been inspired by corporate color palette and the idea was to transform objects into spaces. The monolithic staircase on the lobby floor is not just a vertical circulation element, but also it supports many planned and unplanned social activities of the students. This approach is repeated throughout the project, such as 30m-long table in the cafeteria or a 50m2 wall reserved for students in the foyer area.

ID College and ROC Leiden offer secondary vocational training and education. The new build location in the historic city centre of Leiden accommodates the vocational education for students in healthcare. The complexity and historical nature of the inner city site required a thorough analysis in order to developed a design vision which reconciled these aspects within the brief. The integrated approach in which architecture, urban planning, landscape, interior design and engineering converge results in a unique design.

The design reflects the character of the site, whilst strengthening the structure and identity of Leiden’s historical centre. The new building for ID College and ROC Leiden has a modest appearance, befitting its context. Varying volumes and functions are unified behind a coherent brick facade. The former post office building has been integrated into the new facility and remains recognisable as an independent building. The various departments are connected by alleys and three courtyards, each with their own unique identity. There is a courtyard for the teaching staff, one for the students and a public courtyard in the form of an atrium.

The new building is part of the economic and social fabric of the city of Leiden. A central alley runs through the complex, connecting the Breestraat to Boommarkt and passing through the atrium. During school hours, this alley is publicly accessible. The transparent facades allow passers-by to view practice rooms and other public functions from the street and the atrium. This orientation of views from public to private provides a safe atmosphere for the students and staff.

The ID College facilities are designed with flexibility in mind and facilitate the latest developments in teaching methods. The building has been arranged to anticipate new forms of education and changing needs for space and layouts. The multifunctional layout can accommodate different individual and collective uses and includes workspaces for data collection, group work spaces, and common rooms for social interaction.

This small house in a residential district in eastern Tokyo is home to a couple and their young children. The dark grey galvalume cladding blends gently into the surrounding environment, as if it has been there for many years. Because the lot sits across the street from an elementary school, the clients requested a design that ensured privacy yet was as open as possible.

Private spaces such as bedrooms are located on the first floor, while the second floor contains a family room with a high, sloped ceiling finished in walnut planks aligned lengthwise to give the space a greater feeling of depth and dynamic connection.

In order to make maximum use of the lot’s narrow frontage, the second floor of the façade consists of one large window. This, however, is covered with wooden louvers that shield the interior from view of passersby and the school, while still allowing in light, breezes, and views. A steel staircase in the family room provides access to the roof but also functions as a sculptural element accenting the high-ceilinged room.

The rooftop is surrounded by walls, creating a private courtyard that serves as an additional living and dining area. Clerestory windows facing onto this terrace bring soft natural light into the family room throughout the day.

While the house is small, it is innovatively designed so that family members can move through the vertical space and find their own favorite places to relax; for instance, because the husband enjoys DJing as a hobby, there is a DJ booth next to the first-floor bedroom. This, perhaps, is the unique freedom and pleasure of a small urban house.